Life in the service: Retired U.S. Army Maj. Dominick S. Cortese joined the Air Force as a 19-year-old during the height of the Vietnam War in the mid-1960s. As a munitions specialist, he soon found himself loading nuclear weapons into planes at the Westover Air Force Base in Chicopee, Mass. Within a few months, Cortese, 64, was in Thailand attached to the 307th Strategic Wing, where his crew loaded five B-52s every day with between 84 and 108 bombs. After spending almost 2 ½ years in the Air Force, Cortese went home to South Windsor. In 1974, he attended officer training school through the U.S. Army Reserve and was soon called up as a sergeant. That launched a 16-year career with the 76th Training Division that brought him to Norwich’s Army National Guard complex. He rose through the ranks there, serving as company commander, adjutant and supply officer before being moved to Rhode Island, where he performed evaluations of infantry units. He retired from the military in 1993.

Life after service: Cortese worked for a short time for Thames Valley Council for Community Action. Much of his post-military life has been spent volunteering for various veterans organizations, though he was slow to join them. It wasn’t until the mid-1990s, when he became active with the Norwich chapter of the Disabled American Veterans, that he started participating. He’s a former Norwich commander of the organization, and is currently third junior vice president for the state chapter. Cortese, who belongs to the Richard E. Hourigan Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 594 in Norwich, is a former senior vice commander there, as well. He’s also service officer for District 4 of the state VFW. Cortese has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Eastern Connecticut State University.

Quotable: On his service: “As a crew chief, I was responsible for loading five B-52s a day. You got one day off a week and one two-day break a month.” On his VFW involvement: “When I came back from the war, I couldn’t care less about VFWs and places like that. Who wanted to hang out with a bunch of old World War II guys? But little by little, I became more active. If you join an organization and you have talents and don’t utilize them, you’re at fault, because people are going to recognize that talent and look to you for leadership.”